Imprecatory Psalms

Imprecatory Psalms are hymns that imprecate enemies of God. Contained within the Bible's Book of Psalms, imprecatory psalms call for judgment, calamity, or curses upon various foes. Similar imprecatory prayers are found throughout the Bible. Such prayers are not unique to Judaism or Christianity.^[1][2]

Imprecatory Psalms are hymns which include some kind of call to judgment, calamity, or curse to befall a foe. The term can be misleading because a Psalm with just one verse of imprecation is often classified as imprecatory.^[3]: 113 Even a generally beatific text like Psalm 23 ("The Lord Is My Shepherd") can quickly veer into an imprecation before returning to its primary subject.^[4]: 21

Major imprecatory Psalms include Psalm 109 and Psalm 69 which includes the plea to God, "Pour out Your indignation on them, and let Your burning anger overtake them." Psalms 5, 6, 10, 12, 35, 37, 40, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 79, 83, 94, 137, 139 and 143 are also considered imprecatory.

The Psalms (Tehilim, תהילים, or "praises") are part of both Hebrew and Christian Scripture. They formed ancient Israel's psalter or hymnbook, which was used during temple and private worship. The Psalms are also important references for Jesus throughout the New Testament. He quotes them in John 2:17 and John 15:25, and Paul the Apostle quotes Psalm 69 in his Epistle to the Romans 11:9-10 and 15:3.

Imprecatory Psalms are some of the most theologically puzzling passages of the Old Testament.^{[5]: 582 [6]: 1} One explanation for their presence in the Bible is that it contains many things that are displeasing to God, such as Satan's words in Job or the wicked deeds of David, Solomon, and Judas.^[7] The imprecations have also been variously explained as allegorical, cathartic, products of their time, quotations of enemies, spells, prophecies, the words of the Messiah, or expressions of dependence.^[8]

In 1862, Edwards Amasa Park wrote, "Many an amiable Christian reads some of these scriptures with a half-closed eye. The Imprecatory Psalms...are thought to be ill suited for modern times."^[9]

After witnessing the Nazi persecution of Martin Niemöller in 1937, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a sermon on Psalm 58. The Psalm concludes with a grisly image, "The righteous...will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked". Bonhoeffer begins, "...May we pray this way? Certainly not!" He argues that only the innocent can pray in this way, and the only true innocent is Jesus.^{[10]: 74–80 [11]: 35f}

C.S. Lewis described the imprecatory trap, "The hatred is there-festering, gloating, undisguised...we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or approved it, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves." Lewis worried the imprecations encourage a man "to add, explicitly or implicitly, 'Thus saith the Lord' to the expression of his own emotions or even his own opinions; as Carlyle and Kipling and some politicians, and even, in their own way, some modern critics, so horribly do."^{[4]: 22, 31}

Scholars also widely agree that imprecatory passages are never imprecatory in total, but are contextualized within messages of hope or promised mercy and blessing. More so than anything, particularly for passages from the Nevi'im, the intent is to provoke group or national repentance from evil acts and turn the hearers toward God. So the reader must be certain to look for evidence that, the writer or the nation for which pleads has failed to recognize his or their own guilt as equal to that of his or of their persecutors and is in just as much need of mercy; only then might he or she have warrant to label any particular Psalm as unjustly impprecatory.

The Second Vatican Council removed some imprecatory psalms from the Liturgy of the Hours in the Catholic Church. The psalms were also edited for continued use in the Mass.^[12]

Imprecations in the Hebrew Bible are not limited to the Imprecatory Psalms. The Nevi'im (prophetic literature) contains many, as well, in the books of Hosea, Micah, and Jeremiah, for example, leading to their categorization as "imprecatory topoi". Alongside this, in the Third Sermon of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy of the Torah, Moses is shown describing a litany of curses that would befall Israel for rebelliousness. Many of the same curses were later warned about by Joshua, some 100 years after Moses's death.

The Old Testament is not alone in containing imprecations:

• Matthew 23:13 — "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."
• Matthew 26:23–24 — "And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born."
• 1 Corinthians 16:22 — "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."
• Galatians 1:8–9 — "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
• Galatians 5:12 — "I would they were even cut off which trouble you."
• 2 Timothy 4:14 —"Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:"
• Revelation 6:10 — "And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"

• Jeremiad

• James Adams. 1991. War Psalms of the Prince of Peace: Lessons from the Imprecatory Psalms. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.
• J. W. Beardslee, "The Imprecatory Element in the Psalms," Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 8 (1987).
• John N. Day, "The Imprecatory Psalms and Christian Ethics". Bibliotheca Sacra, 159 (April–June 2002): 166–86. Available online.
• J. Carl Laney. "A Fresh Look at the Imprecatory Psalms". Bibliotheca Sacra 138 (1981) 35–45.
• Daniel M. Nehrbass. Praying Curses; The Therapeutic and Preaching Value of the Imprecatory Psalms. Wipf and Stock, 2013.
• John Piper, "Do I Not Hate Those Who Hate You, O Lord?" Desiring God, 2000. Available online.
• Samuel J. Schultz. The Old Testament Speaks: A Complete Survey of Old Testament History, 5th edition. HarperOne, 1999.
• Erich Zenger. A God of Vengeance? Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath. Westminster John Knox, 1996.

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